Characters

Synopsis

SpongeBob dressed as a flower for Summer.

SpongeBob wakes up, drinks a cup of coffee made by Gary and also eats French toast looks at his calendar. It says "You are a winner", and SpongeBob hugs himself. It also says "first day of summer", and SpongeBob gets excited, and when he goes to work, he sees Mr. Krabs even more excited for summer. SpongeBob asks him why, and he says (incorrectly) that on summer vacation, children go around spending money, and the Krusty Krab will get more profits through kiddie meals (which he raises the price of from $1.99 to $4.99). However, he sees that the children are all at a new playground, and decides to make a playground of his own, Krabby Land.

At work the next day, Mr. Krabs reveals the grand opening of Krabby Land, which he proudly built himself. Krabby Land is little more than a dopey-looking assembly of cheap (and dangerous) attractions such as Fort Adventure, which is nothing more than a collection of big stinky mattresses and other junk. The Dumpster of Doom is another disgusting gem in Mr. Krabs' new nightmare playground. The other attractions are even more terrible, yet bordering on laughable.

The children are horrified, yet speechless with disappointment, but Mr. Krabs gives them coloring books/liability waivers and says that whoever hands theirs back gets to meet "the one and only Krabby the Clown". He tells them that Krabby the Clown will come soon, and tells SpongeBob to stall them while he counts the money. SpongeBob pretends to be Krabby's sidekick "the Krabby Patty Burgular", and the children hate him. He accidentally injures himself while trying to amuse them, which makes them laugh. He realizes that they like pain, and begins intentionally harming himself, even hiring two thugs to torture him by feeding him lima beans.

After a while, SpongeBob goes to Mr. Krabs, who is sorting through a large stack of money, presumably the children's, and tells him that he can't stall anymore, being horribly beaten and missing limbs. Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob he's being selfish and tells him to "get back to work", but upon seeing SpongeBob's limbs flying around (the children were using them as boomerangs), he fears that his windows will be smashed, and soon, Krabby the Clown (Mr. Krabs in a tie and tomato nose painted blue) comes out, and says "Hey kids! Thank you all for coming! Thank you! Eat plenty of Krabby Patties! Ar, ar, ar!" and then walks back into his office. This latest rip-off is the last straw for the children.

An extremely disappointed SpongeBob confronts Mr. Krabs, saying that he expected Krabby the Clown, but all he saw was "Cheapy the Cheapskate." Mr. Krabs undresses from his costume and finally says to SpongeBob that he does not care about the children but for their money and is willing to do whatever it takes to get their money (even if it means having to scam them with a cheap and dangerous playground and a talentless clown) and even calls the kids stupid and foolish enough to be the victims of his scam. He then taunts SpongeBob for being unable to stop him in time by saying twice, "Survival of the fittest."

Mr. Krabs tries to go to the bank with the money he has made but he is confronted by an angry mob of children who have overheard his confession and are planning to punish him. Mr. Krabs, realizing that he is about to be punished and has given the kids his confession which was not taken well; tries to reconcile but fails as the kids charge, beat him up, destroy the playground, take back their money and distribute it back to themselves. They also pay the thugs that SpongeBob worked with earlier, to tied up Mr. Krabs and feed him lima beans and to face the other tortures they made SpongeBob face.

Release

Trivia

The final scene with the kids rioting against Mr. Krabs and taking his money for making a poor character as Krabby the Clown is a likely reference to a 1993 incident at a shopping mall where Barney was billed, but the children became enraged and destructive when a skinny impostor appeared on stage. This may also be akin to the Simpsons episode "Kamp Krusty" when Bart spearheads a revolution against Mr. Black's oppression after seeing Barney hired to be a knockoff Krusty.

The attractions in Krabby Land include: "Rocketship Fantistica" (a garbage barrel hanging by a rope), "Dumpster of Doom" (a bashed-in dumpster with the name spray painted on the side), "Hose World" (hoses hanging from a bar), "Fort Adventure" (a pile of nasty mattresses and other junk), "Toaster Rodeo" (toasters attached to springs), a stack of tires, an old rusty slide, and a bowling ball pool.

One of the children goes down a slide at Krabby Land and the slide ends up breaking and the kid is thrown off, to the ground. He must have sustained some head trauma, which lead to apparent memory loss, as he inquires, "Where am I?" In real life, if this happened, Mr. Krabs would inevitably been sent to prison for child endangerment.

This episode, and its sister episode, "The Camping Episode", were the last episodes where the closed captions were ahead of the characters' speech.

The time card is designed the same as the title card for Reef Blower, but with black color in the background.

SpongeBob had no arms or legs when the kids took them and used them as boomerangs, but in other episodes they grow back right after he loses them. When he walks out the back door to the children, his arms and legs are back.

Things that SpongeBob does to distract the kids:

Spill soapy water on his eyes;

Rip his face with adhesive tape (SpongeBob used the outer side of the tape, not normally the tacky side.);

The muscular fish that helps injure SpongeBob is the same fish that beats up Squidward twice in the episode "Boating Buddies".

When Squidward replied to SpongeBob when he said that he thought what Mr. Krabs said was the true meaning of summer for a long time ago, he replied "You mean this morning?".This is false considering SpongeBob walked back to work after the play ground "Infiltration" with Mr. Krabs.

Both of the burly fish are wide-eyed when they torture SpongeBob, suggesting that they are disturbed that SpongeBob intentionally wants to be tortured.

Cultural References

Krabby Land is an obvious parody of McDonaldland, Playland and/or McDonald's playplaces. Krabby the Clown is most likely a spoof of Krusty from The Simpsons or Ronald McDonald, while the "Krabby Patty Burglar" an obvious parody of the Hamburglar.

The motto of Krabby Land is "Where a kid can have fun-for the right price". This is a reference to Chuck-E-Cheese's motto, "Where a kid can be a kid".